DC Civil War
'''DC Civil War''' ''' ''' Event Synopsis In a battle between The Parasite and the Next Justice, Parasite exploded, seemingly killing the entire team and a large number of civilians (including 100 school children nearby). This led the United Kingdom government to introduce a registration act for all super-powered individuals to make them accountable by the government to call to action. Most heroes were divided on the idea, and thus, the '''Civil War''' began. History '''Background''' '''Invincible War, Forever Heroes, Doomsday''' The Superhuman Registration Act had been a long time in the making. The logical extension of the often-proposed, never-passed Mutant Registration Act, the Superhuman Registration Act arose following the devastating attack on Manhattan in reprisal for Nick Fury's "Secret War" and the Hulk's destructive rampage in Las Vegas, which killed 26 adults, 2 children, and a dog (unbeknownst to the general public, the Illuminati subsequently deceived the Hulk and jettisoned him into space following this incident). '''Stamford''' Villains Nitro, Cobalt Man, Speedfreak, and Coldheart had been holed up in a house in Stamford when the New Warriors located them. The Warriors were at the time the focus of a reality TV show, and although a number of them felt that the villains were out of their league, the network and others in the group thought it would be great for ratings. When Namorita attempted to capture Nitro, he used his explosive powers and destroyed several city blocks, including the elementary school at the epicenter. All of the New Warriors, the three villains accompanying Nitro, and over 600 civilians, among them 60 school children, were killed. Numerous members of the superhero community arrived on the scene to search for survivors. '''Growing Tension''' Public sentiment towards superheroes plummeted. The inactive New Warriors were widely regarded as "baby killers" by association. Hindsight, desperate to distance himself from them, began releasing their secret identities, and almost as many were killed by lynching as by the explosion in Stamford. The Human Torch (Johnny Storm) was beaten into a coma outside a Manhattan nightclub. Public opinion had been lukewarm for the Superhuman Registration Act before; now it passed the tipping point. Although nominally a UN agency, S.H.I.E.L.D. seemed to have assumed the brunt of enforcing the act under acting director Maria Hill. '''Anti-Registration''' Captain America (Steve Rogers) balked at leading a force to apprehend rogue heroes. He felt that heroes needed to be above direct government control, because when politicians could control the heroes, they could decide who the villains were. When Cap refused to support the Superhuman Registration Act aboard the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, Hill attempted to arrest him. Yet, she had no right to do so, for the Act had not been passed yet, so Captain America was not yet a superhuman illegal combatant. So, Cap's actions in that case were in self-defense. After his escape, Cap began organizing other anti-registration heroes into a group the press dubbed the "Secret Avengers." Most of his core group (Captain America, Hercules, Bill Foster, Luke Cage, Daredevil (Daniel Rand), Falcon, and Cable) had to take on a series of identities to avoid capture, literally becoming outlaws. The Secret Avengers apprehended a number of criminals while evading the opposing heroes and the new S.H.I.E.L.D. "cape-killer" units. Other heroes joined them or were liberated after their arrests. The Young Avengers, Cloak, and Dagger were some of these later heroes to join the group. '''Pro-Registration''' Iron Man, on the other hand, felt that it was reasonable that heroes have proper training and oversight, that the casual self-policing the superhero community had enjoyed until now was insufficient, and (most importantly) that it was now impossible to resist this change in the political landscape. He gathered his own pro-registration heroes to bring in Captain America's group and other non-registered combatants. Mister Fantastic (Reed Richards), with the help of Yellowjacket (Henry Pym) and Tony Stark, began work on designing a prison (nicknamed ''42'' because it was the forty-second idea on Tony's list of ways to improve the world) to detain superpowered violators. Most of the pro-registration heroes, such as Mister Fantastic, Doc Samson, She-Hulk (Jennifer Walters), Ms Marvel (Carol Danvers), and Wonder Man, already had highly public identities. Even Stark unmasked himself as Iron Man (for the second time in his career), and admitted to previous attempts to hide his identity. One supporter, however, was not yet public: Spider-Man was reluctant to reveal his identity. He prepared to liquidate his assets and flee the country with his wife and aunt to avoid revealing his identity and putting them in jeopardy. They, on the other hand, were supportive and felt it was time for Peter to finally get some recognition for his good work. During a live, nationally televised broadcast, he pulled off his mask and announced, "My name is Peter Parker, and I've been Spider-Man since I was fifteen years old." The X-Men, on behalf of the mutant community, declared neutrality in the growing conflict. Acting leader Cyclops felt that the mutants had already been through too much during the Decimation to take a stand either way and survive. Individuals within the X-Men had their own opinions on the matter, however. Wolverine felt that the act was every bit as racist and oppressive as the Mutant Registration Act, while Bishop felt it was necessary to embrace the act and make sure that mutants could continue to self-police, lest the truly oppressive regime of his home timeline should come to pass. As the last known mutants, all members of the 198 and X-Men were already in government databases and were registered by default when the act passed. The 198 have since chafed at the constant O*N*E surveillance, as well as their inability to leave the school grounds without being tracked by monitoring chips. When it was discovered the chips could also deliver a powerful electric discharge to assure the 198 could be subdued, they rioted. Mister M used his powers to remove the chips and they left the mansion. Bishop, Sabra, and Micromax were given permission to apprehend them, threatening to shatter Cyclops' neutrality. During the incident, General Lazer's thinly veiled anti-mutant sentiments and his covert attempts to destroy them were uncovered. His neck was snapped by Johnny Dee (via his duplicate of the general) and the mutants and heroes rallied together to prevent disaster. The more sympathetic director of O*N*E, Val Cooper, now seems to have a free hand with regards to the mutant refugees. The X-Men and the 198 were not the only voices of the mutant community, however. The now mostly-depowered Morlocks and the residents of New York's once entirely mutant ghetto Mutant Town remained easy targets for hate groups now that they had reverted to more-or-less normal humans. X-Factor Investigations, an independent group of private investigators made up in part by members of the old superteam X-Factor, have recently set up shop in Mutant Town, and at times have been the only ones protecting the former mutants and putting down hate-induced riots. When the Registration Act passed, the group seemed uncertain how to react, and ultimately decided to go along with whatever their leader, Jamie Madrox, decided. Jamie, being one of the least decisive on the issue, was not happy to hear this. Initially conflicted, he happened to meet a fleeing Aegis (Trey Rollins), who was being pursued by capekillers after stopping a purse-snatcher. After helping Aegis escape, Madrox made up his mind and called a press conference to inform everyone that Mutant Town was now officially off-limits. From now on, they would protect its residents, and the capekillers' presence would not be tolerated. Into this chaotic scene comes Pietro Maximoff. The man once known as Quicksilver had lost his speed powers during the Decimation event, but had gained new powers by inhaling the Inhumans' Terrigen Mists. He now has the ability to restore lost powers to former mutants, though doing so usually ended badly for the recipient of his "gift". He has also set up shop in Mutant Town, though the full extent of his activities has not yet been revealed. '''Operation: Justice Like Lightning''' Meanwhile the government recognized that a war between superheroes left the country defenseless against the remaining super-villains. Their fears are well-placed: villains such as Doctor Doom, Red Skull, Arnim Zola, the Mad Thinker and the Puppet Master have all been shown to have insidious plans in the works. The Thunderbolts were asked to spearhead ''Operation: Justice Like Lightning'', in which they would confront, capture, and if possible reform super-villains. Little did anyone outside the Thunderbolts suspect that Helmut Zemo had already been collecting super-villains for an army to confront the mounting threat of the Grandmasterand his new Squadron Sinister! The captured villains willing to play along quickly swelled the team into three large squads. Still more are being trained every day in a secret mountain camp. Numerous other villains have been released since then under more direct (or less legitimate) government supervision, including the Green Goblin, the Vulture, the Jester, and Jack O'Lantern. The villains are supposedly kept in check by nanites in their blood stream which can monitor and disable them at any time. Norman Osborn, however, has learned the secret to deactivating them from a mysterious benefactor. '''Project: Lightning''' The Secret Avengers were lured by a false emergency call into an ambush by the pro-registration forces, in an attempt by Iron Man to talk the conflict out. However, Captain America attacked Stark, leading to a direct confrontation between the two sides. They first attempted to disable Cap and his team with sonics, but as the battle began to turn decided to unleash the secretive ''Project: Lightning'': Thor. After the fight, it was soon revealed that this was not the true Thor, but a clone created from a few strands of Thor's hair and empowered by a technological copy of the recently-returned Mjolnir. The return of the long-missing god among them gave everyone pause, but the battle soon raged on. When confronted by Bill Foster, Thor sent a bolt of lightning through the hero's chest, killing him. With both sides in shock, Cap ordered a retreat. Bill Foster's tragic death dramatically changed the way both sides looked at the conflict, and turned it into a true Civil War. The event shook up both sides in the war, with Stature and Nighthawk finally surrendering and registering, while the Human Torch and Invisible Woman decided to oppose the act's enforcement with Captain America. '''Spidey Switch Sides''' The pro-registration side suffered another blow when Spider-Man became curious about many of the details of enforcement. He came to realize that Stark was using the "Iron Spidey" suit to monitor his actions and reactions, including his spider-sense. He found and added override codes for a number of Stark commands designed to subdue the wall-crawler if necessary. At one point, he accompanied Stark on a visit to ''42'' after Sue and Johnny left to join the Avengers. He learned that many of the most powerful captured super-humans were being held without trial and without access to counsel in an enormous super-prison within the life-draining Negative Zone. Spider-Man rebelled against the act, and was attacked by Iron Man when he tried to sneak away with Aunt May and Mary Jane. During the fight the three escaped, and several "ex"-villains were sent to capture him. Already weak, he was found, drugged, and blasted half to death by Jack O'Lantern and the Jester. He was saved at the last minute by the Punisher, who brought him to Captain America. Castle revealed he hadn't cared much about the superhero's little war until the government started using killers like Bullseye and Venom. Now he was determined to take down the scum, anyone supporting them, and anyone in his way. The Avengers knew the Punisher's skills were exactly what they needed to wage their guerrilla war, but also that accepting the convicted killer into their ranks destroyed almost all of their legitimacy and moral high-ground. Later, Spider-Man would interrupt a news cast to make a public statement about the horrors of the act's enforcement, and pledged to fight it. '''Final Battle''' As the Punisher worked his way through the Baxter Building to retrieve plans for File 42, Sue Storm went to Atlantis to persuade Namor to join the Secret Avengers, but to no avail. The super-villains Goldbug and Plunderer arrived at the Secret Avengers' base to join Captain America's team, but the Punisher immediately killed them, calling them killers and thieves after their deaths, leading Captain America to attack him and kick him out of the group once he did not raise a finger against him. The Secret Avengers, joined by Storm and the Black Panther, reach the Ryker's Island penitentiary and head through the portal to the 42 complex, but the team is confronted by the pro-registration supporters, revealing each team had placed a spy on the other. Hulkling is able to release the incarcerated heroes from the cells of the 42 complex through the guise of Henry Pym, making the odds more even. As the battle is about to commence, Captain America warns the pro-registration heroes: "Now close your eyes, gentlemen. This might hurt. As the battle began in the Negative Zone, Cloak moved the battle to the center of New York City. Namor and an army of Atlanteans join the battle alongside the Secret Avengers, followed by the Thor clone and Captain Marvel on the pro-registration side. Vision disrupts Iron Man's armor and Captain America is able to subdue him. On the battlefield, Mr. Fantastic is shot while trying to save the Invisible Woman from the Taskmaster and Hercules crushes the skull of the Thor clone. As the battle rages on, the city is badly damaged. Thing returns to protect the citizens from harm of the battle. Captain America's side seems victorious as Iron Man lays on the ground waiting for Cap's finishing blow. Just before Cap can hit Iron Man, several standard cops, EMTs, and firefighters hold him back, and Cap realizes how much damage the fighting has caused to the general population that they all want to protect. Wishing to avert anymore unnecessary bloodshed, Cap surrenders and the team follows suit, with many of the Secret Avengers given amnesty by the government while Captain America is placed in jail. '''Aftermaths''' '''Initiative''' Two months later, the 50-State Initiative was finally launched and the Mighty Justice League unite as a team. Steve Trevor was appointed Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., while Amanda Waller is demoted to deputy status. Some heroes choosed to move to other countries around the globe, while some remain hidden, such as the New Justice League. In front of his New Justice League teammates Luke Cage and Doctor Strange, Invincible reluctantly dons his new blue costume. Notable Participants